Gwithian, on the north coast of Cornwall, is a multiperiod archaeological site. Excavations by Charles Thomas in the mid-twentieth century provided evidence of human activity from the Mesolithic to the post-medieval period. The present work explores the palaeoenvironment of the area around the settlement sites, from the Neolithic, when sand dunes initially developed in the Red River valley, to the present post-industrial landscape. Multiproxy analyses on sediments from coring, a test pit and mollusc columns provide a view of the changing landscape and how it may have influenced, or been influenced by, human presence and settlement. Mollusc studies are used as the principal analytical method. Multiple radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminesce dates permit these changes to be studied on a tighter time frame than was previously possible. Mining activity from the Bronze Age to the present is explored using fine-resolution geochemistry. Dating allows the timing of the extinction and introduction of some mollusc species to be refined.

About the Author
THOMAS WALKER is Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Archaeology, University of Reading. After a career in medicine he entered the world of archaeology in retirement, initially studying for a BSc at Reading and then progressing to a PhD. This monograph is based on his PhD thesis, which explored the palaeoenvironment of blown sands in Cornwall, principally at Gwithian.
Table of Contents

MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) undertook excavations over 2003-4 at the former St Martin’s churchyard, Wallingford, Oxfordshire. St Martin’s, one of perhaps eight churches of late Saxon Wallingford, was located in a prominent position in the centre of the burh. No middle Saxon activity was found and the earliest remains consisted of a layer sealing the natural subsoil which contained a probable late Saxon lead cross. Earliest use of the churchyard has been dated to the late 10th to early 11th century by radiocarbon dating, and burials continued until the end of the 14th century, serving a dwindling parish population, before the cemetery rapidly fell out of use thereafter. No burials post-date 1412. Part of the cemetery has not been disturbed by the present development. The unexcavated areas and previous post-medieval and modern disturbances has meant the original size of the cemetery remains unknown.

A late Saxon mortar mixer found on the site has added to a growing number of this distinctive early constructional feature. While its presence indicates the vicinity of the late Saxon church, no foundations of St Martin’s church appear to have survived cellar digging and quarrying for gravel that occurred in the early 18th century.

Osteological analysis of 187 of the 211 excavated skeletons of the cemetery has depicted a lay population which was almost equally split between males and females, with only a slight bias towards males. Their distribution showed no observable cluster within the churchyard by age or gender. A high proportion of children is notable but newborns and very young children were comparatively rare. The significance of this is unclear since so many disarticulated remains were also present due to later disturbance. Both degenerative pathologies and inherited conditions affecting bone were noted, as were a high frequency of trauma, some of it violent. Generally the population could be shown to have led healthy early lives compared to other urban assemblages, although evidence of tuberculosis and iron deficiency suggest that living conditions and diet at the heart of medieval Wallingford were far from ideal.

Within the excavated area of the cemetery, a number of the burials demonstrated known pre-Conquest burial rites and there are some aspects which may be peculiar to the area, suggesting local variations to common rites. Eight pre-Conquest burials had their heads supported mostly by stones, but one had his head supported by two disarticulated skulls. One 30-40 year old male was buried wearing a pierce scallop-shell, presumably a pilgrim badge from Santiago de Compostella. Four burials were interred in stone-built cists and these ranged from a c1 year old to adults of both sexes. A further six burials lay in stone-built cists without a cover. All post-Conquest burials were earth-cut examples.

Spotlight promotion: 20% off select 'death and burial' titles. RRP: £45. Offer Price:
£36. Offer ends 31/03/2018. The anthropological study of two late 8th century BC monumental graves, designated as T144 and T105, at the ancient necropolis of Paroikia at Paros, initially intended to investigate inter-island features of the human condition, observable as ingrained traces in the human skeletal record, as it may have related to the Parian endeavors in the northern Aegean for the colonization of Thasos.

Through the ‘Paros Polyandreia Anthropological Project,’ it was possible to retrieve insights into aspects of the human environments and experiences that had transpired in a Parian context, elucidated by a considerable population sample of cremated male individuals, transcending to broader features that would have involved Thasos; discerning further facets of the human condition during the Late Geometric to the Early Archaic periods in the ancient Hellenic world.

This book integrates the basic anthropological data, evaluations and assessments derived from the study of the human skeletal record of Polyandreia T144, and T105. Bioarchaeological and forensic anthropological research results include the morphometric analyses of biological developmental growth and variability in relation to manifestations of acquired skeleto-anatomic changes, along with inquiries into the demographic dynamics, and the palaeopathologic profile of the individuals involved. Such intra-site data juxtaposed afforded the possibility to deliberate on issues of the preparedness, intended purpose, function, and symbolic meaning of the funerary activity areas and to reflect on the organizational abilities and capacities of the political and military affairs of the Parians.

Moreover, inter-site evaluations where relative with the burial grounds of Orthi Petra of Eleutherna-Crete, Plithos of Naxos, Athenian Demosion Sema, Pythagoreion of Samos, and Rhodes offer comparisons on taphonomy, on cremated materials’ metric analyses, and on aspects of the funerary customs and practices in the interring of cremated war dead.

Spotlight promotion: 20% off select 'death and burial' titles. RRP: £25. Offer Price:
£20. Offer ends 31/03/2018. The present volume originated in session A25b (‘Current Approaches to Collective Burials in the Late European Prehistory’) of the XVII World Congress of the International Union of the Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (UISPP), held in Burgos in September 2014.

Collective burials are quite a common feature in Prehistoric Europe, with the gathering of multiple individuals in a shared burial place occurring in different types of burial structures (natural caves, megalithic structures, artificial caves, corbelled-roof tombs, pits, etc.). Such features are generally associated with communities along the agropastoralist transition and fully agricultural societies of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic.

For a long time, human skeletal remains exhumed from collective burials were dismissed as valuable sources of information, their studies being limited mostly to morphological assessments and subsequent classification in predefined ‘races’. They currently represent a starting point for diversified, often interdisciplinary, research projects, allowing for a more accurate reconstruction of funerary practices, as well as of palaeobiological and environmental aspects, which are fundamental for the understanding of populations in the Late Prehistory of Europe and of the processes leading to the emergence of agricultural societies in this part of the world.

The articles in this volume provide examples of different approaches currently being developed on Prehistoric collective burials of southern Europe, mostly focusing on case studies, but also including contributions of a more methodological scope.

The Mycenaean chamber-tomb cemetery at Agios Vasileios, near Chalandritsa in Achaea, was first investigated by Nikolaos Kyparissis in the late 1920s, followed by small-scale research in 1961 by Efthimios Mastrokostas. In the years 1989–2001 more rescue excavations were conducted by the Greek Archaeological Service, revealing 30 chamber tombs, some looted. Based mostly on the latest research, this study is the first major presentation of the cemetery and its finds. The topographical data are presented in chapter A, including the most important ancient sites in the region. Chapters B to E deal with the 45 chamber tombs and with the assemblage of the 260 artefacts found in them. The chipped stone assemblage and the ground stone implements are presented in chapter F by Vivian Staikou. Chapter G, by Olivia A. Jones, deals with the human skeletal remains, focussing on burial customs and practices. Chapters H and I handle the discussion and the concluding remarks, respectively. A series of 3D representations and photorealistic illustrations are presented, based on the original plans and architectural drawings of the tombs, to produce a visual appreciation of the important cemetery, unfortunately no longer visible.

About the AuthorKonstantina Aktypi obtained her BA in Archaeology at the National Kapodistrian University of Athens and Certificates in Heritage Management, Administration, and Developing Communication Skills and Responses to Crisis. She has participated in projects of intensive archaeological survey and systematic excavations in Achaea and Aitoloakarnania. Since 1995, she has been working as an archaeologist in the Ephorate of Antiquities of Achaea, conducting rescue excavations in the region dating from the Early Bronze Age to the Roman period. From 2002 to 2011 she worked at the excavations of the Mycenaean settlement and chamber tomb cemetery at Voudeni, also holding a supervisorial position for the major restoration works there. Her current research interests include the study of the chamber tombs at Voudeni, an Early Bronze Age settlement near Patras and the two best preserved tholos tombs in Achaea, in the prehistoric cemetery at Rhodia. She is also working on educational programs, introducing students to the art of Archaeology.

Olivia A. Jones obtained a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and History at West Virginia University and a Masters in Aegean Archaeology at University College London. She has worked in academic and contract archaeology projects in the United States and Greece. She is currently completing her doctoral research at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Her research interests include applying a bioarchaeological approach to Mycenaean mortuary practices.

Vivian Staikou is an archaeologist of the Ephorate of Aitoloakarnania and Lefkada. She studied Archaeology and Fine Arts in the National Kapodistrian University of Athens and received an MA in Prehistoric Archaeology from the University of Crete. Over the years she has carried out archaeological fieldwork in Attica, Achaea, Aitoloakarnania and Lefkada. Her current research interests include lithic technologies, the Palaeolithic of Western Greece and the archaeology of the island of Lefkas. She also has a particular interest in developing educational programs for children.

The human-animal relationship is one that has been pondered by scholars for ages. It has been used to define both what it means to be human and what it means to be animal. Birds, Beasts and Burials examines human-animal relationships as found in the mortuary record within the area of Verulamium that is now situated in the modern town of St. Albans. Once considered a major centre, the mortuary rites given to its people suggest high variabilities in the approach to the personhood of certain classes of both people and animals. While 480 human individuals were examined, only a small percentage was found to have been afforded the rite of a human-animal co-burial. It is this small percentage that is examined in greater detail. Of major concern are the treatments to both the human and animal pre- and post- burial and the point at which the animal enters into the funerary practice.

About the Author:Dr Brittany Elayne Hill is an American archaeologist who completed her undergraduate studies at University of Kansas in 2009 before coming to the University of Southampton in 2010 to pursue her master’s degree, which was then followed up by her acceptance to a PhD course in 2011. An ongoing fascination with Romano-British culture and osteology inspired her to engage in research covered in this book. She is particularly pleased by the combined representation of human osteology and zooarchaeology demonstrated in this monograph, as both play roles in the formation of the Romano-British burials found in St. Albans. This is her first monograph and she is excited to release the results of her PhD work to the public sphere for the first time. She is hopeful that the content of this monograph inspires others to consider the influence human-animal relationships have on the formation of ancient and modern cultures alike.

This work provides the first overview of mammal species distributions in Africa since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 18 ky) to modern time. It is derived from data published mainly in the zooarchaeological literature until 2009. During a post-doctoral project hosted in the zoological department of mammal collection at the Naturhistoriches Museum in Vienna (Austria), the occurrences of taxa in archaeological sites on the African continent were recorded in a database, integrating geographical and chronological information. This record offers the opportunity to produce a chronological atlas of mammalian distributions by presenting their occurrences on successive maps over the last 18 ky.

This work is useful for zooarchaeologists dealing with one particular species by providing a bibliographical work that documents its past locations. It must be noted that fauna are mainly documented through their presence at archaeological sites and are therefore tied to the presence of humans and their activities. This may only partially reproduce their true past distribution. However, the sites offer a good coverage throughout space and time and generally reflect the extent of mammalian distributions, although the limits of their distributions may be further refined. The atlas will aid in the investigation of palaeoecological issues, such as the capacity of mammals to adapt to climatic change and respond to human disturbance in the recent past of Africa.

The database also provides information that is fundamental to a better understanding of what influenced the present-day distribution, dynamism and structure of mammalian communities in Africa. By incorporating a larger temporal scale to modern ecological studies, it may help control their conservation since desiccation and human disturbance in Africa is still a worrying question for their future.

In this volume, a pleiade of Egyptologists, Archaeologists, Archaeoastronomers, Archaeoanthropologists, Historians and other scholars from fifteen countries (Hellas, Egypt, France, Russia, Ukraine, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Turkey, Australia) have combined their efforts in order to honour Alicia Maravelia, whose important work in Egyptology and in the foundation of the Hellenic Institute of Egyptology are highly acknowledged.

This book, with foreword by His Eminence the Archbishop of Sinai and Abbot of the Holy Monastery of St Catherine, Mgr Damianos, contains thirty original articles, two abstracts and a plethora of accompanying texts including Dr Maravelia’s list of publications. The book is divided into three parts: 1. Nūt and the Realm of Stars [15 contributions]; 2. Ancient Egyptian Religion and its Celestial Undertones [12 contributions]; and 3. Ancient Egyptian Science, Medicine, Archaeoanthropology, Egyptomania, Egyptophilia, etc. [5 contributions].

The reader will find papers that deal mainly with the goddess Nūt and her mythology and cosmographic notions related to her, the stars and other celestial luminaries, orientations of monuments, ancient Egyptian constellations and decans, the notion of time, calendars, religious and funerary observances related to the sky, ancient Egyptian religion, religious and amuletic artefacts, religious mythology, as well as archaeoanthropological and medicinal studies, papers on ancient Egyptian Mathematics, Egyptophilia, Egyptomania and ancient Egyptian collections.

Spotlight promotion: 20% off select 'death and burial' titles. RRP: £50. Offer Price:
£40. Offer ends 31/03/2018. The sites of Teviec and Hoedic, located in Brittany and excavated from 1928 to 1934 by Marthe and Saint-Just Péquart, have yielded twenty-odd graves dating to the end of the Mesolithic and containing almost forty individuals. Nearly a century later, they remain the most important funerary groups ever discovered in France for this period, and two major French Mesolithic sites. Until these days though, despite previous re-examinations of part of the unearthed material, no general review of the field data or of the human remains had ever been carried out, and all the debates concerning the functioning of both cemeteries relied on the interpretations once made by the Péquart and on the anthropological studies by Marcellin Boule and Henri Victor Vallois. This book presents the long lacking bioarchaeological review study of the Teviec and Hoedic graves: the field data have been reconsidered, relying in particular on a large series of pictures taken by the excavators, and the number of dead individuals, their age and sex have been reevaluated using anthropological techniques in accordance with our current knowledge. This review also gives us the occasion to carry out a global reflection on the circumstances under which the dead were grouped during the Mesolithic period and on the society of Atlantic Europe’s last hunters-gatherers as perceived through the filter of their funerary practices.

About the author:Bruno Boulestin is an anthropologist at the University of Bordeaux, France, member of the research unit “De la Préhistoire à l’Actuel : Culture, Environnement, Anthropologie” (PACEA, UMR 5199 of the CNRS). He is working on the diachronic study of practices around death in ancient societies from both archaeological, bioarchaeological and socio-anthropological data and is specialized in the study of bone modifications and corpse treatments.

Archaeological excavation has been widely used in the recovery of human remains and other evidence in the service of legal cases for many years. However, established approaches will in future be subject to closer scrutiny following the announcement by the Law Commission in 2011 that expert evidence will in future be subject to a new reliability-based admissibility test in criminal proceedings. This book evaluates current archaeological excavation methods and recording systems – focusing on those used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australasia, and North America – in relation to their use in providing forensic evidence, and their ability to satisfy the admissibility tests introduced by the Law Commission, and other internationally recognised bodies.

In order to achieve this aim, two analyses were undertaken. First, attention was directed to understanding the origins, development, underpinning philosophies, and current use of archaeological excavation methods and recording systems in the regions selected for study. A total of 153 archaeological manuals/guidelines were examined from archaeological organisations operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. This research indicated that the Stratigraphic Excavation method and Single Context Recording system, the Demirant Excavation method and Standard Context Recording system, the Quadrant Excavation method and Standard Context Recording system, and the Arbitrary Level Excavation method and Unit Level Recording system were the approaches most often used to excavate and record graves.

Second, the four defined methodological approaches were assessed experimentally, using a grave simulation of known properties to test the excavation, recording, and interpretation of material evidence, the definition of stratigraphic contexts, and understanding of stratigraphic relationships. The grave simulation also provided opportunities to measure archaeologists’ narratives of the grave formation process against the known properties of the grave simulation, and to assess whether archaeological experience had any impact on evidence recovery rates.

Fifty repeat excavations were conducted. The results obtained from this experimental study show that the Quadrant Excavation method and Standard Context Recording system was the most consistent, efficient, and reliable archaeological approach to use to excavate and record clandestine burials and to formulate interpretation-based narratives of a grave’s formation sequence. In terms of the impact that archaeological experience had on evidence recovery rates, archaeological experience was found to have little bearing upon the recovery of evidence from the grave simulation.

It is suggested that forensic archaeologists use the Quadrant Excavation method and Standard Context Recording system to excavate and record clandestine burials. If this approach is unable to be used, the Demirant Excavation method and Standard Context Recording system, or the Stratigraphic Excavation method and Single Context Recording system should be used. Both of these aforementioned techniques proved to be productive in terms of material evidence recovery and the identification and definition of stratigraphic contexts. The Arbitrary Level Excavation method and Unit Level Recording system should not be used, as this method proved to have an extremely poor evidence recovery rate and destroyed the deposition sequence present within the simulated grave.

In 2011, cavers exploring a little-known cave on Moneen Mountain in County Clare in the west of Ireland discovered part of a human skull, pottery and an antler implement. An archaeological excavation followed, leading to the discovery of large quantities of Bronze Age pottery, butchered animal bones and oyster shells. The material suggests that Moneen Cave was visited intermittently as a sacred place in the Bronze Age landscape. People climbed the mountain, squeezed through the small opening in the cave roof, dropped down into the chamber, and left offerings on a large boulder that dominates the internal space. The excavation also resulted in the recovery of the skeletal remains of an adolescent boy who appears to have died in the cave in the 16th or 17th century. Scientific analyses revealed he had endured periods of malnutrition and ill health, providing insight into the hardships faced by many children in post-medieval Ireland.

About the author:Dr. Marion Dowd is a Lecturer in Prehistoric Archaeology at the Institute of Technology Sligo, Ireland. For two decades her research has focussed on the human use of caves in Ireland, and specifically the role of caves in prehistoric ritual and religion. She has directed numerous archaeological excavations in Irish caves, and has lectured and published widely on the subject. Her first book, The Archaeology of Caves in Ireland (Oxbow Books, 2015), won the Tratman Award 2015 and the Current Archaeology Book of the Year 2016. This current book is the result of excavations she directed in Moneen Cave, with a team composed of both archaeologists and cavers.

A Dignified Passage through the Gates of HadesThe Burial Custom of Cremation and the Warrior Order of Ancient Eleutherna by Anagnostis P. Agelarakis. 24pp; illustrated throughout in colour. 15 2016. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781784913830. £8.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781784913847.

Archaeological excavations at the Eleuthernian burial ground of Orthi Petra continue to yield significant elements of the archaeo-anthropological record, the subject matter of continuous interdisciplinary research, outreach, national and international acclaim. Among a plethora of features discovered, unearthing components of a unique nexus to the Geometric-Archaic Periods, was an unspoiled time capsule in astonishing contextual preservation, a hand carved tomb with a drómos into the softer bedrock material of Orthi Petra. Designated in short as contextual association A1K1, the tomb as a funerary activity area yielded a remarkable collection of jar burials in complex internal tomb stratification, containing cremated human bones accompanied by a most noteworthy assembly of burial artifacts of exquisite wealth, along a multitude of traces of “fossilized” behavior left resolutely behind by the ancients in their transactions on the paths of their perceived realities and obligations of life norms, but also of the arcane matters of afterlife. Such evidentiary data of funerary behavior in conjunction with the rest of the archaeo-anthropological record afford the opportunity to document where possible and deduce where pertinent aspects of the transitional period, overlapping the end of life’s journey and the unfolding of death in light of a number of the principles, the values, and the modes that guided the lives of the ancients as mortuary habits may have the transcending power to be revealing of certain codes of ante mortem conduct, of main beliefs, of ideologies and viewpoints, characteristic of their ideational world and hence of their attitudes toward, and expectations of, post mortem life. Such understandings, based on critical and deductive thinking combined with the data offered through the scope of anthropological archaeology and forensics by the decoding of traces permanently recorded on bone and dental surfaces, construct a persuasive dialectic, regarding important facets of the human condition in Eleutherna from Geometric through Archaic times.

Access Archaeology:Our newest imprint is designed to make archaeological research accessible to all and to present a low-cost (or no-cost) publishing solution for academics from all over the world. Material will range from theses, conference proceedings, catalogues of archaeological material, excavation reports and beyond. We will provide type-setting guidance and templates for authors to prepare material themselves designed to be made available for free online via our Open Access platform and to supply in-print to libraries and academics worldwide at a reasonable price point. Click here to learn more about publishing in Access Archaeology.

This report aims to offer glimpses of the human condition on Naxos island, Greece, focusing on the archaeoanthropologic study of the human skeletal remains along with associated contexts of faunal materials recovered from the Geometric (9th -7th c BC) component of the burial ground site of Plithos in Chora at Naxos island.

Access Archaeology:Our newest imprint is designed to make archaeological research accessible to all and to present a low-cost (or no-cost) publishing solution for academics from all over the world. Material will range from theses, conference proceedings, catalogues of archaeological material, excavation reports and beyond. We will provide type-setting guidance and templates for authors to prepare material themselves designed to be made available for free online via our Open Access platform and to supply in-print to libraries and academics worldwide at a reasonable price point. Click here to learn more about publishing in Access Archaeology.

In this work we present an anthropological study of crania and mandibles from the osteological collection from Chinchero (Peru), currently housed at the American Archaeological and Ethnological Museum of the Complutense University of Madrid. From 1968 to 1971, a team of archaeologists of the Spanish Scientific Mission in Hispanic America excavated the site of Chinchero, a small village located in the Andean high plateau near Cusco. As the result of this mission, remains from 8 single burials and two ossuaries dated to pre-colonial times were exhumed and brought to Spain. The excavated area included an ancient palace and several administrative and religious structures built by Tupac Yupanqui, who ruled the Inca Empire between 1471 and 1493. The surroundings of the catholic church, erected over one of these buildings, were excavated as well.

Access Archaeology:Our newest imprint is designed to make archaeological research accessible to all and to present a low-cost (or no-cost) publishing solution for academics from all over the world. Material will range from theses, conference proceedings, catalogues of archaeological material, excavation reports and beyond. We will provide type-setting guidance and templates for authors to prepare material themselves designed to be made available for free online via our Open Access platform and to supply in-print to libraries and academics worldwide at a reasonable price point. Click here to learn more about publishing in Access Archaeology.

Structured Deposition of Animal Remains in the Fertile Crescent during the Bronze Age by José Luis Ramos Soldado. vi+58 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white. Access Archaeology . Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781784912727. £20.00 (No VAT). Epublication ISBN 9781784912697.

Although most of the animal remains recorded throughout the archaeological excavations consist usually of large assemblages of discarded and fragmented bones, it is possible to yield articulated animal skeletons in some cases. Most of them have been usually picked up from sacred and/or funerary contexts, but not all of them might fit necessarily in ritual and symbolic interpretations, and not all of the structured deposit of animal remains may be explained due to anthropic factors. In addition, zooarchaeology has traditionally focused on animal domestication, husbandry and economy, and species identification above all, shutting out further discussion about these type of findings. Moreover, the limited condition of the data is also another issue to bear in mind. Thus, the aim of this paper has been to draw up a literature review of the structured deposits of animal remains during the third and second millennia BC in the Ancient Near East for its subsequent classification and detailed interpretation. In this survey it has been attested that not only most of the articulated animal remains have been found in ritual and/or funerary contexts but also that all species recorded– but some exceptions–are domestic. Hence, I argue in this paper that there is a broad religious attitude towards the main domesticated animals of human economy in the Ancient Near East, based on the closeness of these animals to the human sphere. Therefore, it seems that domesticated animals were powerful constituents in the cultural landscape of these regions, never simply resources.

Access Archaeology:Our newest imprint is designed to make archaeological research accessible to all and to present a low-cost (or no-cost) publishing solution for academics from all over the world. Material will range from theses, conference proceedings, catalogues of archaeological material, excavation reports and beyond. We will provide type-setting guidance and templates for authors to prepare material themselves designed to be made available for free online via our Open Access platform and to supply in-print to libraries and academics worldwide at a reasonable price point. Click here to learn more about publishing in Access Archaeology.

Spotlight promotion: 20% off select 'death and burial' titles. RRP: £35. Offer Price:
£28. Offer ends 31/03/2018. The Herxheim enclosure, located in the German region of Palatinate, is one of the major discoveries of the last two decades regarding the Linear Pottery Culture, and probably one of the most significant in advancing understanding of how this culture ended. The spectacular deposits, mostly composed of human remains, recovered on the occasion of the two excavation campaigns carried out on the site, grabbed people’s attention and at the same time raised several questions regarding their interpretation, which had so far mostly hesitated between peculiar funerary practices, war and cannibalism.

The authors provide here the first extensive study of the human remains found at Herxheim, focusing mainly on those recovered during the 2005–2010 excavation campaign. They first examine the field data in order to reconstruct at best the modalities of deposition of these remains. Next, from the quantitative analyses and those of the bone modifications, they describe the treatments of the dead, showing that they actually were the victims of cannibalistic practices. The nature of this cannibalism is then discussed on the basis of biological, palaeodemographic and isotopic studies, and concludes that an exocannibalism existed linked to armed violence. Finally, the human remains are placed in both their local and chronocultural contexts, and a general interpretation is proposed of the events that unfolded in Herxheim and of the reasons for the social crisis at the end of the Linear Pottery culture in which they took place.

About the Authors:Bruno Boulestin is an anthropologist at the University of Bordeaux, France, member of the “Anthropologie des populations passées et presents” (A3P) team of the unit “De la Préhistoire à l’Actuel, Culture, Environnement, Anthropologie” (PACEA, UMR 5199 of the CNRS). He is working on the diachronic study of practices around death in ancient societies from both archaeological, bioarchaeological and socio-anthropological data and is specialized in the study of bone modifications and corpse treatments.

Anne-Sophie Coupey is an archaeologist at the University of Rennes 1, France, Centre de Recherche en Archéologie, Archéosciences et Histoire (CReAAH, UMR 6566 of the CNRS). She is specialized in the archaeology of death and has worked mainly on funerary practices in Southeastern Asia.

This publication brings together personal analyses of sixty CT scans of ancient Egyptian human mummies collected from many museums throughout the UK and continental Europe. The effect is that of performing ‘virtual autopsies’ (‘virtopsies’) allowing techniques of mummification to be examined. The historical age of the mummies ranges from the Middle Kingdom to the Roman Period. Several new observations are made regarding the preparation of mummies and confirmation of previously described themes is tempered by the observation of variations probably indicating individual workshop practices. The work presents a springboard for further detailed research on the subject.

'This volume contains the results of his studies of sixty scans of mummies, dating from the Middle Kingdom to the Roman Period, collected from various UK and continental European museums. The data obtained is presented in great detail and will undoubtedly prove invaluable in future research into mummification.' - J. Peter Phillips (Ancient Egypt Magazine, 2016)

About the Author:Robert Loynes is an Orthopaedic Surgeon who, after retirement, carried out the research described in this publication and was subsequently awarded a PhD in Egyptology. His lifelong interest in Egyptology and a lifetime career using medical images fired his passion for the subject of mummy research specifically using CT scans as a tool.

The Roman Cemetery at Nemesbőd belonged to a settlement or a villa which was located on the territory of the Roman colony of Savaria (present day Szombathey, Hungary) in Pannonia. The book deals with thirty-seven graves, which consisted of mainly cremation but also of some inhumation burials. Detailed analysis of grave goods (bronze vessels, pottery, glass, personal accessories, lamps etc.) provides a study of burial customs and their evolution. In addition, specialist reports on human remains and animal bone as well as on epigraphic material are presented.

The study of human remains from ancient Egypt and Nubia has captured the imagination of many people for generations, giving rise to the discipline of palaeopathology and fostering bioarchaeological research. This book contains 16 papers that cover material presented at a workshop entitled ‘Palaeopathology in Egypt and Nubia: A Century in Review,’ held at the Natural History Museum, London (August 29–30, 2012), which formed part of a three-year research project, ‘Sir Grafton Elliot Smith: Palaeopathology and the Archaeological Survey of Nubia.’ The papers explore the subject of palaeopathology from its beginnings in the early 1900s through to current research themes and the impact of technological development in the field. Revealing the diverse range of methods used to study human remains in these regions, the book gives readers an insight into the fascinating work carried out over the last century, and suggests some possible future directions for the field.

'This is a volume of sixteen papers (presented at the 2012 Natural History Museum workshop) which explore the subject of palaeopathology (the study of human remains) from its beginnings in the early 1900s through to the latest technological developments... Complete with black-and-white illustrations and bibliographies, this is an essential guide to one of the most important areas of Egyptological research today.' – Sarah Griffiths (Ancient Egypt Magazine, August 2015)

Marine borers, particularly the shipworms, as destroyers of timber, par excellence, are well known from very ancient times. They attacked the wooden hulls of ships with such intensity that the weakened bottom planks broke up even due to a mild impact caused by hitting a rock or any floating objects inducing shipwrecks. Even the survival of sunken ships as wrecks depends on the mercy of wood-destroying organisms, which may turn these ‘port-holes’ to history into meaningless junks. The silent saboteurs, involved in several early shipwrecks, are the molluscan and crustacean borers, aided by bacteria and fungi.

This paper presents an account of the marine wood-borers, together with a historical review of literature on their depredation on wooden ships, and on protective methods adopted from antiquity to modern times. The seriousness with which early mariners faced the problem of bio-deterioration and the fear the wood-borers created in their minds have been brought to light with, in some cases, excerpts from their journals and books. The anxiety and concern for protecting the ships from the ravages of wood-borers and for their own safety, as evidenced from their accounts, are discussed. Classification of various groups of marine wood-borers with notes on characters of systematic value and a complete list of species so far recorded in literature have been included under Appendix I and II. Methods employed to prevent damage to the boats included deep-charring, coating with pitch, coal-tar, whale oil and mustard oil with lime; scupper nailing (‘filling’); sheathing with animal skin, hair, tarred paper, wooden boards (untreated or soaked in coal tar, Ferrous sulphate, Copper sulphate or Lead monoxide); sheathing with metals (Lead or Copper sheets); plastic, neoprene coated ply-woods; and painting with Copper oxide, Pentachlorophenol or phenylarsenious oxide. None of these imparts complete protection. Recent archaeological investigations carried out in British waters, especially on ‘Mary Rose’, are also summarised. It is suggested that, though borers are instrumental in inducing ship-wrecks thereby enriching the materials for archaeological studies, excavations at known ship-wreck sites should be augmented to unearth valuable historical data, before they are lost to satisfy the insatiable appetite of these pests.

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